Sirius’ Happy Ending
3 months after Sirius’ huge mistake, Pandora, Regulus’ best friend, came barging into the Gryffindor common room just before curfew, gasping. Immediately, Remus, James, Peter, and Regulus perked up and Pandora looked frightened for a split second before controlling her face.
“One of my roommates informed me a few minutes ago that Avery and Snape had Sirius cornered in the Astronomy tower. She said that she had gone up to meet her boyfriend and found the two snakes pointing wands at a defenceless Sirius. It looked like he was nervous so hurry and go get your dog,” Pandora said. She waved her hand towards the door. Lily, Marlene, Barty, and Mary all rushed out after the Marauders and Pandora. They got to the tower just in time to see Sirius dodge the Cruciatus curse from Avery. Regulus disarmed both Slytherins and Barty and James stood in front of Sirius to stop any wandless magic from Severus.
“W-what? W-why are you guys here?” Sirius’ voice spoke up and James felt his heart drop with sadness. He did that. Not him alone but he helped destroy his best friend. The Heir of Potter lowered his wand and looked behind himself, straight at Sirius.
“Pandora warned us about Avery and Snivellus. We ran here as fast as we could,” James tried to tell his friend but the latter shook his head wildly.
“No! No, I don’t deserve it! I betrayed Remus, I nearly got Severus killed, you had to save both of them. I nearly made Regulus lose his boyfriend and friend and Peter had to stay with me to make sure I didn’t harm anyone else. I don’t deserve you lot saving me from this. Go away!”
“Big brother!” Regulus teared up at the sight of brother slowly losing his mind. He hadn’t felt that useless since the night that Sirius left the Black house. He left his fellow house members to Lily and Marlene, who started tying the villains together with rope.
“GO AWAY! GO AWAY! GO AWAY!” Sirius yelled, getting closer to the open window. Remus gasped and walked to his boyfriend, trying to reach for him but getting hit by Sirius’ waving arms.
“Sirius, get away from the window! Come here! Please Sirius! Move away from the window!” Remus cried out, tears rolling down his face. At this point, James had put away his wand and was also trying to reach out to Sirius. Barty and Mary had run out and gone to get McGonagall on the orders of Pandora, who looked stricken.
“Siri, please, brother, come back! I need you! I need your protection! Who else is going to help me dramatically leave Mother and Father? Who else is going to bully James when we are with Effie and Monty? Who else is going to be my best man if James and I marry but you? Who is going to marry Remus but the love of his life?” Regulus full on crying at this point. Peter had wrapped the younger Black into a hug, stopping him from getting near his brother
“I hurt him. I hurt the love of my life. I’m not going to marry him! He’ll find someone else. I-I-I don’t deserve it!”
“Black! You do! I take back what I said that night! You and Remus are good together! Merlin, Sirius get away from the window,” Severus had also taken to yelling at Sirius, shocking quite literally everyone. Sirius sniffled and brought everyone back to reality, a reality that wouldn’t have Sirius if they couldn’t save him right now.
“Padfoot, come off there, please. I need my best friend. I’m sorry I ignored you for months. I'm sorry I didn’t hear your reasoning for telling Severus. I'm sorry for being a horrible, terrible friend these last few months. Please come down so I can hug you. Please, Padfoot!” James started crying as well and reached out along with Remus and Peter for Sirius, who contemplated it before smiling at his two best best friends and his handsome boyfriend.
“I’m sorry too,” and out the window Sirius fell. Screams filled the astronomy tower and unknownst to Sirius, Remus had called for a broom and flew to catch his boyfriend. Regulus and James followed after the werewolf and flew behind him to see if they could catch the dog animagus.
It was by lucky chance that Regulus managed to grab onto the back of his brother’s robes, James managed to get his broom under Sirius, and Remus grabbed onto Sirius’ hand. The three landed onto the ground and the werewolf immediately hugged his boyfriend.
“Oh Merlin, Sirius I’m so sorry!” Remus cried as Sirius fell limply in his arm. “What did I do?”
“‘S not your fault, Remus. ‘S all my fault. I’m the stupid one not you,” Sirius muttered, head laying on Remus’ shoulder. “Don’t blame yourself.” And then, he fell unconscious.
Madame Pomfrey came rushing out of the school and to where the 4 boys were still hugging and the three boys were crying. She didn’t bother telling them to separate when she saw how distraught they were. But she did ask James to carry Sirius to the infirmary.
((((((((())))))))
Two days went by and all of Sirius’ friends had dropped by to visit. James and Remus came by the most to apologise, Regulus came by at night to quell his nightmares, Peter would come and drop off his homework and inform him of any gossip around the school throughout the day, Lily came by to chastise him multiple times for scaring them like that. But Sirius didn’t wake up no matter how much noise they made. Madame Pomfrey said that his body is still recovering so it’s unlikely that he’ll wake up for another day at the least.
“He’ll be fine, James,” Regulus held his sobbing boyfriend. They were sitting on Sirius’ bed after Regulus finished quidditch practice for the day.
“How do you know? He tried to kill himself because he was under the impression that we didn’t want to talk to him. Yes, he made a mistake but we made it worse by avoiding him.” James bawled, making Regulus even more upset than he already was. James was a strong willed man who didn’t cry unless it’s a romcom.
“Because he’s my brother and we know he’s a fighter. He fought his way out the Black house to make it to your house, he came up with the idea to become animagi for Moony, he supported me when I decided I also wanted to be an animagus, he fought against Mulciber, Malfoy, Avery, and Snape when they were bullying Peter. Everyday he makes sure that no one harasses the girls in the corridors and classrooms. He charms protection spells on-JAMES! HE STILL PUT HIS PROTECTION CHARMS ON US!” Regulus jumped out of Sirius’ bed, startling James and waking a snoozing Wormtail.
“Huh?”
“Even when we weren’t talking to him, Sirius still put his charms on us to make sure we were safe!”
“Merlin! You’re right! That git Padfoot! Now he definitely has to be okay so I can strangle him!” James stopped crying and started laughing. Peter transformed back and gave the couple an unamused look.
“What’s going on?” Remus walked into the dorm room, textbooks in hand.
“They figured out that Sirius was putting his usual 24 hour protection charms on us,” Peter said nonchalantly.
“Oh…OH MERLIN! How did we not know that before? Let’s go to the infirmary wing! We can ask Sirius to explain himself.” Remus pulled Peter and the couple ran behind them.
“He’s awake?” Peter asked, practically internally jumping.
“Yeah, Pandora and Lily went to visit him and he started waking up. The girls thought we should be there when he actually wakes up.” The four friends ran as fast as they could, avoiding any of the other students, to the infirmary, where Sirius was waking up.
As soon as they got there, Madam Pomfrey let them in and made four chairs appear on either side of Sirius. Lily and Pandora moved out of the way so Peter and Remus could take up one side and James and Regulus the other. Regulus held onto his older brother’s right hand and squeezed. Remus took Sirius’ left hand and kissed his ring finger.
“Please wake up, brother.” Regulus did something he hadn’t done in a while. He gave his brother a kiss on the cheek. It used to be their thing to tell the other that they’re fine. A thing they started doing when they were toddlers and stopped doing after Sirius left for his year of Hogwarts. “We need to know you’re okay, Siri.”
((((((((())))))))
Another 2 days passed before Sirius woke up. This time, James and Peter were waiting next to his bed and were shook awake by the man of the hour himself.
“Why are you two here? Don’t you have class?”
“Minnie gave us a free pass from class. She made us promise to alert her as soon as you woke up. Bloody hell, Pads, you had the whole school worried,” James smiled sadly as his best friend. Peter sent a patronus to their favourite professor, knowing that the rest of their friends were bound to be hanging around her to keep track of when Sirius had woken up.
“Prongs won’t admit it but he was so worried about you that he actually cried on Reggie. Moony was full on bawling like a baby as well. We all had to sleep on your bed just to calm down,” Peter confessed to Sirius, who teared up.
“Boys-“
“Don't finish that. You mean so much to us and we’re sorry we didn’t notice before how much you were suffering. I swear we were going to talk to you but then classes and you started avoiding us as well. We’re so sorry, Siri,” Regulus cried and hugged his brother as soon as everyone walked into the room. Professor McGonagall had an upturn of her lips gracing her face but then shut down her emotions so that she could speak to Sirius seriously.
“Mr. Black, the next time you decide to throw yourself out of a window, please be considerate of your friends’ feelings as well. None of us quite enjoyed your dramatic fall from grace, pun absolutely intended.”
The students all stared at her, jaws to the ground. Sirius brought the silence to an end when he let out a shocked laugh and then fell into a long wheezing laughing fit. Soon everyone was laughing and McGonagall looked proud of herself.
“Thanks for the advice, Minnie. I promise I will think before jumping out of another window.”
“I would hope so. Now, I’m going to leave now that I see that you are okay. I have lots of homework to grade. If you’ll excuse me,” Minerva left the room leaving behind a chorus of ‘thank you professor’ behind her. Once out, she smiled brightly, nodded her head, and went off on her way back to her classroom. She may not show it but Sirius Black and his group of misfits always brightened her day and seeing that he’ll be fine, brought her life back to normal. She was quite frightened by his suicide attempt as she got there just as he fell backwards and out the window.
“So, that happened,” Lily joked, causing even more laughter among the friends.
“Sirius, you are not allowed outside of our sight until we graduate, is that understood,” James informed his best friend.
“As long as I’m with Moony all day,” Sirius batted his eyes at his boyfriend.
“Jeez, almost killed himself and he’s still flirting,” Marlene hit Sirius’ foot.
“Ow! You can’t hurt the injured! It’s against the rules,” Sirius whined and rubbed his hurting foot.
“You caused this to yourself,” was all Remus said, smiling down at his boyfriend. Sirius smiled up at Remus and tapped his hand. Remus kissed the top of his head and sat down at the edge of the bed.
“You’re absolutely evil, Remus.”
“Moony”
“What?” Sirius let go of Remus’ hand.
“You have to call me Moony again. No more Remus. That’s not my name. You want me to forgive you? Call me Moony again.”
Sirius, honest to god, squealed and kissed his boyfriend all over his face. Their friends laughed at Remus’ exasperated facial expression.
“Pads, want my forgiveness too, right?” James brought the attention to him. Sirius sat straight up and nodded eagerly. “My name is Prongs again.”
“Prongs, Prongsie, I missed you,” Sirious admitted. James teared up and hugged his best friend and brother for the first time in 3 months.
“I missed you too, Padfoot,” James cried. Remus and Peter joined in their hug. A black and white cat crawled into Sirius’ lap.
“Ah! Bandit! I missed you little brother,” Sirius pocked the cat’s nose. The girls all cooed at Regulus’ cat form for two seconds before yanking him off Sirius’ lap.
“Little Bandit! We’ve all missed you,” Mary kissed the cat’s nose. Said cat sneezed and tried to escape the Gryffindor girl’s hold. Lily was next to hold Bandit.
“Look how cute he is. I could just squish him.” The cat hissed at that and scratched Lily’s arm. “Ow! Reginald, that did hurt, you asshole.”
“Hahaha! Come here, love. I want Bandit cuddles,” James released Sirius and opened his arms wide enough for the cat to jump into them. Sirius laid his head on James’ shoulder so he could easily pet the tiny cat.
“Thank you guys.”
“For what? We didn’t do anything special,” Peter pointed out.
“For being here. For being my friends. For not giving up on me,” Sirius honestly stated.
“Of course, my lover. We’ll always be here for you,” Remus kissed his boyfriend.
“Oh that reminds me! HOW DARE YOU SEND US ALL SAD LETTERS!” James whacked his best friend on the head.
“Oi! I already told Marlene not to hurt the injured! Knock it off, mate!” Sirius hit James back.
“No! You do not get to send us all sad, depressing letters saying how sorry you are. Mum was terrified when she got a letter from your owl. Thought something really bad had happened. Which yes it did but it’s not like you’re dead or leaving my family. You, my good sir, are stuck with us and my parents. It’ll do you some good not to forget that!”
“Alright! Stop hitting the injured!”
((((((((())))))))
Sirius, Peter, James, Remus, and a shifted Regulus all stood in front of the Potters’ Manor. Watching for what? They didn’t know the answer to that specific question. All five were scared to walk inside, absolutely afraid of what Effie would say. They each received a letter from the woman politely demanding they all come to the Manor for the summer vacation. The older boys helped Regulus write a letter to Walburga and Orion stating that he would not be going home for the holidays and when the response came, Sirius had promptly ripped it up and thrown it into the Gryffindor common room fireplace. They even got the girls to join them in a celebration ritual dance.
“I promise, Effie isn’t going to hurt you boys. Well, maybe Sirius but not the rest of you.” Monty chuckled as he walked between his son and his boyfriend.
“Hey! I’m still considered injured! You can’t hurt an injured person!” Sirius stormed into the house, his fear hidden behind a false sense of confidence. It all crumpled down when he saw Effie sitting in the kitchen, drinking a cup of tea. “H-hey mum. W-w-what a beautiful day, innit?”
“Sirius Orion Potter Black! Don’t you dare ‘hey mum’ me! You told another person a secret meant to be kept between friends not the whole bloody school!” Effie scolded Sirius, who looked down at the floor in shame.
“Beautiful biological mum of mine. Now isn’t the best time to be scolding Sirius. His mental health is still not 100%,” James informed his mum, who sighed and went to hug Sirius.
“I’m sorry, Sirius. You know I see all of you as my sons so I’m very protective of you.”
“I know, mum. Don’t apologise for wanting to protect Moony. I understand. I used to do the same thing,” Sirius sent a weak smile towards Effie, who squeezed the older Black brother into a tighter embrace. Sirius hugged her back and let the silent tears run down his face. “Oh my Merlin, I’ve cried so much this half of the year. I’m surprised I still have tears to cry.”
“I’ll put his things into his room,” Monty commented, taking Sirius’ bags up to his room. Sirius tried to refuse but was waved off by the oldest Potter and the other Marauders. He and Effie moved to the library to sip on tea and eat biscuits. He told Effie everything and explained that at the time, he thought dying was the best way to get his friends to smile once more after what he did. Effie had broke down crying multiple times and kept getting up to give him hugs so, Sirius at one point decided to sit down between her legs, facing away so the woman could braid his hair the way she find calming. It had become a thing they did whenever Effie had to think about the war and Sirius needed comfort after nightmares.
“Sirius, listen carefully. You are not allowed out of my sight during these next months until you get on that train back to Hogwarts. I need to know you’re okay still. Getting that letter was terrifying. Dumbledore wouldn’t update us on how you were doing and we had to hear about it from James.”
“Don’t worry Effie. Remus promised to stay close to me as well. As a way to keep track of me. As if he doesn’t already have sixth sense when it comes to me.”
“Sirius, you know that we all love and want you, right? Our lives wouldn’t be better without you,” Monty stated, coming into the library with the other boys waking behind him like obedient little ducklings.
“I know, dad. I think at some point during this whole fiasco, I lost sight of it but waking up in the infirmary, surrounded by everyone, I remembered that I’m loved and wanted. I was reminded that life may be hard, I may make mistakes, but that doesn’t mean that my friends will abandon me and throw me away. I think the final piece was that I needed to hear it from my parental figures as well that I’m wanted by them.”
“You’ll always be wanted by us. No matter where you move off to with Remus, know that we’ll always want you here,” Effie stood up and pulled Sirius up with her. She instigated a group hug among the small family.
And Sirius was never sad again. Well, until Regulus and James got married and he was forced to give away his baby brother to his brotherfucker of a best friend. Oh and when Remus beat him to proposing. Yeah, that was a really sad moment for Sirius as he had stressed about proposing at the right moment and Remus just got confident and proposed the night of their 5 year anniversary.
When little Harry, James and Regulus’ son, asked his godfather when he was 11 years old if Sirius would still be here when he came back from Hogwarts, everyone watched as Sirius teared up and hugged the young Potter-Black.
“Always, Bambi. I’ll always be here. I’m not going anywhere. Not for a while.